Microsoft announces Halo 5: Guardians, coming to Xbox One in 2015

Microsoft and 343 Industries have announced the latest installment in the Halo franchise, called Halo 5: Guardians. Scheduled to hit the Xbox One in the fall of 2015, the game chronicles Master Chief's journey following the events of Halo 4.

343 Industries general manager Bonnie Ross mentioned that Halo 5 will be a "bigger effort than Halo 4," and that the upcoming game will "incorporate the things we learned from Halo 4 about technology, aesthetics, performance and scale — and perhaps more importantly, understanding and embracing a community of gamers who love what lies at the heart of this game, and the limitless potential of the Halo universe."

Halo 5 will run on a new game engine developed by 343 Industries, with the studio retooling its technology to take full advantage of the next-gen capabilities offered by the Xbox One to "create worlds and experiences worthy of next-gen" consoles.

Ross also clarified her statements made during last year's E3 conference: "Many fans noted that I was very deliberate with my phrasing on stage at E3 last year. I spoke about a 'journey,' rather than a destination, and that journey definitely begins in 2014 with a giant leap, rather than one small step."

Further information regarding Halo 5 will be announced at Xbox E3 2014 media event, which will be held on June 9. In addition to a new Halo game, Microsoft is also working on a live action television series which is being directed by Steven Spielberg. The live action series is also scheduled to launch sometime next fall.

It's Master Chief with new Forerunner-given armor and - possibly - greatly changed personality. Underneath is a reflection, alluding to Chief's past. His new AI will be a Forerunner-era relic, maybe built by the ancient humans.

I feel like Phil Spencer and Satya Nadella have been making all of the right corrections/moves since they both got promoted. Microsoft and Xbox have some issues but recently they have been doing the right things IMO. Kinect isn't really catching on unfortunately, so the removal was a good move. Windows/WP 8.1 are pretty legitimate now as well.

As much as I want to be excited for halo 5... 343 ruined halo 4 and thus the series when they made the online play exactly like call of duty...not to mention butchering the collectors edition and releasing the game with a broken online, custom, etc system.. They do not deserve halo :'(

That the game is releasing in 2015, isn't big news. People wouldn't play halo 2 ani. This year. If halo 5 was out in the same month. And its not logical to put it next to Destiny and sunset overdrive. We have The division and the crew. following in Feb/march. Good way to spend time till halo 5.

Fall 2015? Ridiculous! TWO YEARS after console launch???? Even Sony was able to get Killzone out by launch - and at least graphically/technically it is no hack port and takes great advantage of the hardware (read the Digital Foundry article on Eurogamer). This is almost like MS doesn't want to sell consoles. First they remove Kinect (and Snap my go in some games, based on developer discussions), then two years from launch for Halo 5? I bought a XBone at launch, but Halo is really the only exclusive game that gives me interest - I can't believe it will take so long for me to justify my purchase.... I've even recently been replaying some XB360 Halo 4 thinking Halo 5 might be out early 2015....

More than likely an evolution of the MC, dont forget he was altered in halo 4 with the results of that still not completely understood, its prob forrunner, didact, reclaimer armour of some sort. At least that's my theory :)

I don't think it's fair to judge at this point until after E3. Microsoft is probably hoping this pre-E3 announcement will drive Xbox One sales before consumers who are on the edge have a chance to see what Sony's E3 conference will bring. Personally I'm more interested in what Nintendo will be showcasing. But it looks like all three conferences will be interesting this year. This is gonna be a good E3.

I was thinking the same thing. My PS3 works fine and I have a bunch of games to play. I figured I would upgrade to the next gen when Halo came out since I planned on jumping to XB. I was hoping for a fall 2014 release, but it looks like I will be holding out a little longer...

It is Cortana. Combine that pic with last years hints and comics. No doubt It's Cortana "The Chief is finding a way to get Cortana back" "Cortana chip...... Forerunner tech. I wonder?" "I may not Lose it, its to important to save humanity. If that doesn't give it away. Than what is. I'll bet he finds a way to get Cortana in a Didact suit and kick ass with Cortana at his side. Being pissed and all that she was in halo 4.

I think it will at some point, Halo 2 ani. is first Coming up this year. And They are still working on the backwards compatibility to play 360 games on the Xbox One. Or Maybe they end up in the store depending on the developers. It's a waiting game if u want to play those on Xone.

At the very least, 343 should release Halo Anniversary for the PC. Maybe Microsoft should lead by example through getting their in-house studios to create the same game for WP, XOne and W8.1 as they kept on promoting their one vision/ecosystem.

what he meant is 4K gaming which neither system claims to support because they are too underpowered to make the experience any good. off course, if you're a PC gamer, 4K is basically something you've only been held back from doing because of the price of the screens, as PCs doing 4x FSAA are already rendering at 4X the 1080p resolution and have been for years.

Destiny to disappoint? I get that you're a die hard Halo fan but you can't say the game will be bad if you haven't even tried it yet. Don't get me wrong I like Halo but Destiny seems to be what I wanted for a long time. A science fiction game that is as epic as Halo.

This kills all rumors and speculations then. This'll be next gen tough! Hate to play solo on hardest difficulty for Lone Wolf achievement again. Is the new villain's image Master Chief or just Master Chief's new next gen costume in the photo?

In the books, the Master Chief and those that we played as in Halo: Reach were from the Spartan 2 program. Due to the Covenant war, it became unreasonable to wait for the duration of the Spartan 2 program to complete to get more elite soldiers and the genetic selection criteria was a bit too high.

The Spartan 3 program was born by increasing the genetic pool selection (by lowering standards) and shortening the training regiments (by lowering standards and increasing technology). This allowed much larger numbers of "Spartans" to be trained from the young ages of 4-6 until they were 12-14 rather than until they were adults, but with the negative of side effects that did appear in the pool of candidates. It also made for very large suicide squads that the UNSC could throw at highly desirable Covenant targets that were previously impenetrable.

My guess is that either the character pictured above is a twisted-evil Spartan 3, or perhaps a Spartan 4 (one of the just-"normal" Spartans revealed in Halo 4 that were not abducted as children and trained for a decade), which has gone rogue. Or, perhaps, it is another Forerunner (the alien race and main villain from Halo 4--the Didact--that is eluded to in the previous games as the creators of the Halo rings). Still, it could even be one of the few remaining Spartan 2s that they do not talk about that has formed some other ring, but I doubt that they would want to fight the Master Chief as they all loved him.

SPOILER ALERT

It will be interesting because of the ending of Halo 4 how they deal with the Master Chief's return especially given the fact that the Covenant are in collapse and, as far as we know, they faced off with the last Forerunner (the Didact was the military commander of the Forerunner and lived on a shield world). Perhaps without a war to fight, the UNSC will try to make him a scapegoat for other things. I guess that we will have to wait to see.

There were xbox offers that discounted it to $450. I believe those bundles wven included a game. $50 for the Kinect is a steal. The thing can act like a universal remote using a smartphone. It gives you voice commands. You might not use those voice commands all the time but saying pause, go to TV, go to a channel, etc are useful. Plus Skype capabilities. The PS4 is charging $60 for the eye which is just a web cam. I'm constantly amazed that people don't see the value of this thing. If you buy the Xbox one without the kinect, I would suggest getting it later when you have the money even if there no games that make use of it. I personally have never used it in a game. I use it for TV viewing. If the add cortana to it and make the voice recognition better, it will be incredibly useful.